So how often you send in your Leica for adjustments?

[THEME]

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Came across this, says he's a pro photographer:

Quote

If you use your Leica camera frequently, you often have to send it to the factory. The focus is done with precise mechanics. Adjustment is necessary due to external influences. This is done in the Leica factory with wonderful meticulousness. However, all equipment must be sent in. I sent in my Leica cameras and lenses around every 9 months.

https://www.stefangroenveld.de/2020/what-you-should-know-before-you-buy-a-leica-m/?lang=en

Or better every 6 months??

👺

[Gelatino]

So every 6 months, your camera is gone for at least 3 weeks up to " 8 weeks in Germany. Outside Europe even longer.." No way!  Get a 2mm Allen key and do it yourself in few minutes, provided that only the mecanical part of the range finder is concerned  and that you don't have  two left hands  (done it on M240, M10 not yet on M11)

[AndreasG]

I use various M cameras since 1984, with thousands of shots, none of them ever has been sent back to Leitz/Leica for rangefinder adjustment.

[pippy]

Never.

Similar to Andreas I've been using Leica M since around 1979/80 and, apart from the M9 sensor cover-glass issue and a line of dead pixels on one of the replacement sensors, nothing has ever needed fettling by the factory.

I did, however, need to adjust the r/f on my current two digital M bodies but, as Gelatino says in post #2, that is something easily done in a few minutes by anyone in possession of a 2mm Allen Key and a smattering of competence.

Philip.

Edited May 11, 2022 by pippy

[colint544]

I bought a used Leica M6 back in 1998. It was a 1985 model, and I had no idea if it had ever been serviced. I used that camera until 2015. I didn't ever have it serviced, but it never missed a beat, and the focus was always spot on. I know the current owner of the camera, and she reports that it's still going strong. She loves that camera, and has named it Klaus. She's never had it serviced either. 

My M9M, I've had since 2012. I dropped that on the pavement back in 2015, and the rangefinder - unsurprisingly - went out of alignment. Camera went back to Leica for a full service, rangefinder alignment, and new corrosion-proof sensor. It's been absolutely fine ever since.

So, I'd say that you probably don't need to worry too much about servicing an M camera. The best thing for a camera is just for it to be used regularly. 

[Stuart Richardson]

When they break. Or every 10-20 years or so. Clearly it depends on use. I am not using my M much these days, so it does not need much care. That said, you don't want to not use it at all, or it can be bad as well. I sent my father's M6 in for service after he gave it to me. He bought it around 1984 or 1985, I believe. It had been working just fine, though slightly rough. I sent it for a CLA and it came back smooth as silk. I sent it in in 2015 I believe, so 30 years without service...I should say the RF and metering and winding were all totally working when I sent it in. Just the winding on and shutter sounding very slightly "dry" compared to newer M's. It came back smoother than the newer ones.

Edited May 11, 2022 by Stuart Richardson

[Ouroboros]

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Never.  Unless a problem arises that needs fixing, which has been very rare in the five decades of using cameras to make my living.

[Viv]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

If it is broke, get out your 2mm Allen key.

[jdlaing]

How often? Once since 1968.

[adan]

Focus adjustments - never sent anything to Leica.

Sent one for focus realignment to a local specialist (now retired) after it dropped onto concrete.

[Rob L]

I adjust my own. I send my film cameras to DAG once they reach 20+ years old. 

[Herr Barnack]

Quote

If you use your Leica camera frequently, you often have to send it to the factory. The focus is done with precise mechanics. Adjustment is necessary due to external influences. This is done in the Leica factory with wonderful meticulousness. However, all equipment must be sent in. I sent in my Leica cameras and lenses around every 9 months.

The guy is high on peyote.  🙄

In 20 years of M camera use, I have had rangefinder misalignment twice.  I sent both cameras off to Leica USA in NJ and the turn around time was three weeks for each camera (film MP and M-P 240).

As for M camera bodies needing to be CLAed, Sherry Krauter told me once every 10 years for film M cameras.  I would expect the same service interval for digital M cameras, but most people on this forum never keep a digital M camera longer than 3-4 years, so it's a non-issue for them.

The most lucid advice in this thread so far comes from @Viv who said "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  If it is broke, get out your 2mm Allen key."

I have learned how to wet clean my sensor without harming it or damaging it.  Perhaps it's time for me to learn how to adjust my own rangefinder mechanism.  If you are deep in the Hindu Kush and your rangefinder gets misaligned, either you adjust it yourself or in focus image making is over for that trip, which would be pretty much a disaster in photographic terms.

 

Edited May 11, 2022 by Herr Barnack

[THEME]

Well it was more a tongue-in-cheek post referring to an extremist pro user... 🤣

[KeyofG]

I haven’t heard of one person I know sending their Leicas in for alignment. I guess maybe if you drop it or something? Not sure if the film cameras are more susceptible to misalignment. 

[charlesphoto99]

I had to send in my brand new M10-R black paint right out of the box for rf misalignment. Same with a brand new M8, and a brand new M9 Monochrom I had to adjust myself straight out of the box. It happens. Otherwise only when dropped, or once went on a bumpy bike ride in Vietnam that threw the vertical alignment out on an M6. 

[Robert Blanko]

Well, if I read „For five and a half years I photographed almost all jobs with a Leica M. That even led to a Leica advertisement with my pictures. So I can truly say that the Leica is an adequate camera for all kinds of photography.“ I usually stop reading… „All kinds“? Seriously?

To answer the initial question: never so far. I once adjusted the rangefinder of my M10R by myself. M10 is still fine.

[KeyofG]

32 minutes ago, Robert Blanko said:

All kinds“? Seriously?

Technically with enough depth of field, long enough lens and a high enough shutter speed you can capture anything. Granted, not ideal, but possible  

https://leicarumors.com/2018/05/12/shooting-an-nba-basketball-game-with-the-leica-m10-camera-and-leica-apo-telyt-m-135mm-f-3-4-lens-part-2.aspx/

Edited May 12, 2022 by KeyofG

[adan]

5 hours ago, Robert Blanko said:

Well, if I read „For five and a half years I photographed almost all jobs with a Leica M. That even led to a Leica advertisement with my pictures. So I can truly say that the Leica is an adequate camera for all kinds of photography.“ I usually stop reading… „All kinds“? Seriously?

Seriously!

I can and have used nothing but Ms for over 90% of my jobs - anything a 21 to 135 can handle - for the past 17 years. I show a few below (I can oblige with larger - sometimes much, much larger - versions if anyone wants). I don't include the "obvious" jobs an M can do: weddings, other events, portraits of all kinds, or copying artwork by my fellow gallery members for print reproductions.

All cameras are just a box with a lens on it. The M qualifies, so long as one applies brain-grease and imagination regarding what it can do. And one also follows my rephrasing of Robert Capa's dictum - "If you aren't close enough, your pictures won't be good enough!"

Between "grainless" digital at low ISOs, and the capabilities to crop, stitch, correct distortion and so on, there is not much I can't figure out how to do with an M.

Pix are with M8/9/9M/10 and lenses 15mm(on M8)/21/35/75/90/135 - M6+135 and Velvia for the Mountain Goats (no crop). The pano of the gray/green building is seven or so vertical M9/35mm v.4 pictures stitched, totaling over 13000 pixels wide (shot it "on spec" - the architects bought it, because it was an "impossible view" of their work otherwise).

BTW - I don't use or need to use EVFs or live-view, but for those that do, that also expands the capabilities further.

I do keep a Canon 5D2 and 300mm +1.4x extender around, for that other 5-10%, just in case - haven't needed it for over 5 years.

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[adan]

6 hours ago, KeyofG said:

Technically with enough depth of field, long enough lens and a high enough shutter speed you can capture anything. Granted, not ideal, but possible  

135mm f/3.4? He had it EASY!

My first basketball assignments in 1976 were in rural gyms so dark they required f/1.4 and Tri-X boiled in paper developer until its teeth fell out (EI undefined, but probably 4000-5000 equivalent). Which pretty much meant a 50mm lens was the only option, there being no such thing as a Nikon 135 f/1.4 or even an 85mm f/1.4 back then (and small newspapers didn't provide exotica like Zeiss 75 Biotars or Nikon RFs or NOCT-Nikkors or Noctiluxes).

But figuring out how to do it the hard way is how one develops the imagination to squeeze every drop of goodness out of whatever one has at hand.

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Hallo,

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[Robert Blanko]

vor 11 Stunden schrieb KeyofG:

Technically with enough depth of field, long enough lens and a high enough shutter speed you can capture anything. Granted, not ideal, but possible  

https://leicarumors.com/2018/05/12/shooting-an-nba-basketball-game-with-the-leica-m10-camera-and-leica-apo-telyt-m-135mm-f-3-4-lens-part-2.aspx/

Well, that would IMHO overstretch the meaning of „all“ and „adequate“.

Possibly there might exist rare species of M wildlife photographers with magic fingers who are able to nail the focus on let’s say the eye of a bearded vulture in flight at 500mm focal length but this does not mean that an M camera is adequate for said purpose.

It seems to me like climbing the Mont Blanc with sandals - for sure some freaks could do, but is this adequate?

Edited May 13, 2022 by Robert Blanko